A complete guide to planning, writing and designing documentation for distribution to an international audience. Shows publication departments and design teams how to create one document for world-wide distribution; covers all forms of documentation; carefully describes the do's and taboos of page layout, color, example choices and much more.

Over the past decade, the World Wide Web has dramatically changed the face of technical communication, but the teaching of writing has thus far altered very little to accommodate this rapidly changing context. Technical Communication and the World Wide Web offers substantial and broadly applicable strategies for teaching global communication issues affecting writing for the World Wide Web. Editors Carol Lipson and Michael Day have brought together an exceptional group of experienced and well-known teacher-scholars to develop this unique volume addressing technical communication education. The chapters here focus specifically on curriculum issues and the teaching of technical writing for the World Wide Web, contributing a blend of theory and practice in proposing changes in curriculum and pedagogy. Contributors offer classroom examples that teachers at all levels of experience can adapt for their own classes. The volume provides comprehensive coverage of the technical communication curriculum, from the two-year level to the graduate level; from service courses to degree programs. This volume is an important and indispensable resource for technical writing educators, and it will serve as an essential reference for curriculum and pedagogy development in technical communication programs.

The field of technical communication is rapidly expanding in both the academic world and the private sector, yet a problematic divide remains between theory and practice. Here Stuart A. Selber and Johndan Johnson-Eilola, both respected scholars and teachers of technical communication, effectively bridge that gap. Solving Problems in Technical Communication collects the latest research and theory in the field and applies it to real-world problems faced by practitioners—problems involving ethics, intercultural communication, new media, and other areas that determine the boundaries of the discipline. The book is structured in four parts, offering an overview of the field, situating it historically and culturally, reviewing various theoretical approaches to technical communication, and examining how the field can be advanced by drawing on diverse perspectives. Timely, informed, and practical, Solving Problems in Technical Communication will be an essential tool for undergraduates and graduate students as they begin the transition from classroom to career.

The increasingly global nature of the World Wide Web presents new challenges and opportunities for technical communicators who must develop content for clients or colleagues from other cultures and in other nations. As international online access grows, technical communicators will encounter a range of challenges related to culture and communication in cyberspace. These challenges include how to design content and develop services for online distribution to a culturally diverse audience of users; how to address cultural and linguistic factors effectively when collaborating with international colleagues and clients via online media; and how to develop effective online teaching and training practices and materials for use in learning environments comprised of culturally diverse groups of students. The contributors to Culture, Communication and Cyberspace examine these challenges through chapters that explore the different aspects of international online communication. The contributing authors use a range of methodologies to review a variety of topics related to culture and communication in cyberspace. In so doing, the authors also examine how business trends, such as international outsourcing, content management, and the use of open source software (OSS), are affecting and could change practices in the field of technical communication as related to online cross-cultural interactions.

This practical text offers a research-based account of the technical communication profession and its practice, outlining emergent touchpoints of this fast-changing field while highlighting its diversity. Through research on the history and the globalization of technical communication and up-to-date industry analysis, including first-hand narratives from industry practitioners, this book brings together common threads through the industry, suggests future trends, and points toward strategic routes for development. Vignettes from the workplace and examples of industry practice provide tangible insights into the different paths and realities of the field, furnishing readers with a range of entry routes and potential career sectors, workplace communities, daily activities, and futures. This approach is central to helping readers understand the diverse competencies of technical communicators in the modern, globalized economy. The Profession and Practice of Technical Communication provides essential guidance for students, early professionals, and lateral entrants to the profession and can be used as a textbook for technical communication courses.

Developed for use by non-native speakers of English enrolled in Technical Writing and Communication courses. Technical Writing and Professional Communication, 2/e, places technical writing in its context, showing students how to consider their purpose and their audience when writing reports, memos, and correspondence. Formerly titled Technical Writing and Professional Communication: A Handbook for Nonnative Speakers, the new edition features a case running throughout seven chapters, dynamically illustrating the writing process. The revision also provides complete coverage of the new computer technologies and the new attention to the intercultural concerns in today's business world.

Today, it has been said, the world is "flat," as online media allow information to move easily from point to point across the earth. International legal differences, however, are increasingly affecting the ease with which data and ideas can be shared across nations. Copyright law, for example, affects the international flow of materials by stipulating who has the right to replicate or to share certain kinds of content. Similarly, perspectives on privacy rights can differ from nation to nation and affect how personal information is shared globally. Moreover, national laws can affect the exchange of ideas by stipulating the language in which information must be presented in different geopolitical regions. Today's technical communicators need to understand how legal factors can affect communication practices if they wish to work effectively in global contexts. This collection provides an overview of different legal aspects that technical communicators might encounter when creating materials or sharing information in international environments. Through addressing topics ranging from privacy rights and information exchange to the legalities of business practices in virtual worlds and perspectives on authorship and ownership, the contributors to this volume examine a variety of communication-based legal issues that can cause problems or miscommunication in international interactions. Reviewing such topics from different perspectives, the authors collectively provide ideas that could serve as a foundation for creating best practices on or for engaging in future research in the area of legal issues in international settings.